Inoue dropped but stops Cardenas to retain undisputed 122 crown
'The Monster' gets 8th-round TKO in thrilling return to U.S.; Espinoza pummels Vazquez into 7th-round knockout in WBO 126 defense
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It had been a rough boxing weekend with heavily hyped fights failing to deliver any meaningful entertainment, that is until Naoya Inoue and Ramon Cardenas served up a hearty dose of thrilling action and drama.
Inoue survived a stunning second-round knockdown to otherwise dominate and stop Cardenas in the eighth round of a raging slugfest to retain the undisputed junior featherweight title in the main event of a rare Sunday night Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card before 8,474 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The fight salvaged a frustrating few days for boxing fans after massively disappointing back-to-back pay-per-view cards — one on Saturday headlined by the awful Canelo Alvarez-William Scull undisputed super middleweight title fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and a show on Friday in New York’s Times Square, where welterweight Rolando Romero upset Ryan Garcia and welterweight Devin Haney routed Jose Ramirez in bouts with historically low punch output.
The same could not be said for Sunday’s fight as Japanese superstar and pound-for-pound great Inoue made his fifth overall 122-pound title defense and fourth of the undisputed crown as he fought in the United States for the fourth time in his career and for the first time in four years.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everybody is very much aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said through an interpreter.